comshaw

A bribe or gratuity for a service or for arranging a deal; squeeze.

I have understood that the parents frequently receive handsome comshaws for their daughter, but never give anything with them ; they cannot therefore be charged with the meanness of marrying for money: at least the men are free from the charge and the women don't appear to have so much as a negative in the business.

It is a case of cash down; you have to part there and then, and on the strength of this “comshaw,” or squeeze.

The practice of pilfering or bartering for surplus items.

The practice was so common it was no longer considered stealing. It was comshaw. That kind of thinking made the Iran/Contra arms scandal and Watergate okay at the time. It's comshaw when you do it, but it's stealing when you get caught; it's politics when you do it, but it's illegal when you're found out.

Mostly by way of "comshaw," a sailor's term for bartering, but it was usually a coffee grounds deal at LBNS.

To acquire without officially requisitioning; to pilfer or barter for surplus items.

Chips in Las Vegas are as negotiable as green money. You can take them into any club and cash them in for money, for $5 or $10 or whatever it is. So all you've got to do is put a chip in the end of your fingers, turn your hand down like you're trying to touch your wrist, and you can comshaw — or steal — comshaw is a much better word — a $25 chip from a table.

As soon as she was recommissioned Com7thFleet had comshawed her for his flagship.